Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone. All the preparations (with the exception of some potatoes, a bit of turkey and a few slices of pie) have been enjoyed.

I'm visiting Nostalgia Lane this morning. Blogger won't let me put these in the order I want to, so will sort of wing it here.

We mismatched china this year. I do love a dinner with china and linen. These two sets represent two different families. Ones that were joined nearly 24 years ago in Minnesota on a cold wintery day. The set in the foreground (sorry you can't see it) comes from Jari's aunt Martta who passed away recently. She was instrumental in bringing Jari's family here from Finland. Thank goodness. Otherwise this dinner might have never occurred on Thursday.

Then there is my mom's china. Somday I'll have to share "Who Gets Grandmother Yellow Pie Plate" with you, but suffice it to say that one of the most cherished things I wanted of my parent's was the set of china. We used it often. Special visitors were fed off these plates. Sometimes the table was turned diagonally in the kitchen to accomodate all the bodies, but these plates adorned the table every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of nostalgia in the silver trim of them. I don't have the turkey platter that goes with them. Isn't it amazing that even a set of china can have bits of stories and life tangled in with them? The turkey platter took a spill one time and hit the floor. I even remember who was holding it ... I just won't tell you.

I also have a tremendous fondness for linen. My fondness for linen just might be surpassed by my love of starch. I don' t remember if we used starch at home or not. I do remember the large, strange colored green plastic bag that held the ironing. In there it was misted and allowed to sit and wait for the ironing board. I did love to iron. I wonder if I groaned about it then. I learned to appreciate non wrinkled things. I especially like the crisp of freshly starched. We don't use these often. They used to grace our coffee table often when we had visitors over for the evening. And I mean MY home, not my mom's. This Thanksgiving we used the linen. I'm going to find a convenient close by place for it so I can use it often and make it a regular part of life once again.

I did miss watching the polishing of silver this year. I must hand that off to one of the boys and teach them tradition as well. I really don't use much of anything in the line of silver, but just watching the polishing adds enough nostalgia to the day that it might be worth it.

We spent the evening at the Mat-Su Borough gym with a nice size gang of others. Visiting with Mary Maki, who is up here visiting, was certainly enjoyable. Lots of desserts ... another couple cups of coffee. Then home to start Black Friday shopping at midnight. I got the one item I really wanted. Was thoroughly disappointed with Target's shipping policy and, quite honestly, couldn't find much in the ads that I couldn't live without. I'll certainly be online again next year.

Friday morning we woke to the phone. Heini called to let us know that Charisse and family lost everything in a fire on Thanksgiving night. All were alive and well .. for that we are certainly thankful. I did talk to Charisse yesterday so I'll share on here. I have these visuals going on in my mind. Once past the horror of being chased out of your home in the middle of the night and surviving, imagine the rest of it. Paint a picture in your mind. It really begged to have a photographer there. 0 degrees in Fairbanks. Only time enough to run, which meant whatever you were sleeping in, you ran out in. At least one in boxers. Do you know anyone who sleeps in their shoes? Not me. They didn't either. Some kind souls stopped and they were able to warm the 5 children in the car. The couple got them to a hotel and settled in. Red Cross has stepped in to assist them tremendously and we anticipate there will be an outpouring of support from the community when it learns of the tragedy. Someday they will have serious giggles over this. Imagine shopping for clothing on Black Friday .... in your pajamas. And not shopping because you need another pair of jeans because 12 of them wasn't enough. Shopping because you have nothing. We are certainly thankful.

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About Me

We are a family that moved from city living in warm Arizona to the relative quiet of Alaska for 4 wonderful years. It had been a dream of ours for many years to live in Alaska and experience the Last Frontier. We were blessed to be able to have that experience. It is a regret that we will not face later in life. For that, among many things, I am thankful. For now, life now brings us back to Phoenix. I can't count how many times I've heard "are you back for good?" Perhaps we are. Perhaps we aren't. We continue to dream of summers chasing the salmon from stream to raging river in the beauty that is Alaska. In the meantime, I'll fill my life with children finishing their schooling, craft lists that are endless, family and friends. And as always, we'll continue to dream.